Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Steve Jobs steps down as CEO of Apple
Today marks a historical day in the world of computing and technology, as Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple has stepped down from his role as the leader of the tech-Goliath.
The announcement followed the news that an iphone 5 was due for release in the near future.
Jobs, who co-founded the company, has been plagued with medical issues of recent years, including his bout with pancreatic cancer which he beat. Steve has been on a medical leave of absence in the past few months, only to briefly return for an announcement of the new Max OSX Lion at a conference.
He has been a driving force at Apple, and only time will tell if the company will continue to be innovative and maintain it’s strength without their leader. One thing is for certain, Apple’s share price dipped 7% on the announcement, and had a tendency to drop on previous announcements of his leave from work. The company almost fell over during the 90s while he was away, and only started to recover when Steve took the reins and introduced the iMac personal computer, and announced a partnership with Microsoft to run MS Office on their machines.
Apples rise and rise since his return has been attributed to the slow but steady growth of the OSX Platform, and most notably the introduction of the iPod music player, and more recently, the highly sought after Apple Iphone smart phone, and iPad tablet devices.
Steve has indicated he will be staying on as Chairman of the board at Apple, should he receive share holder approval.
We hope Steve recovers to health and continues contributing to the things he is passionate about.
Internet Explorer 9 Launch
The latest web browser from Microsoft, Internet Explorer 9 was launched overnight, and in true tech fashion, a launch party was held in Texas, USA to make a spectacle of the event.
Beta and pre-launch versions of the current version have already been downloaded by over 40 million users, whilst there are over 900 Million users of earlier versions of the popular browser.
Microsoft’s new web browser focuses on improved privacy settings, tighter integration with Windows 7, and a more graphic rich experience, taking advantage of graphics hardware acceleration in newer computers for enhanced online gaming and smoother high definition video.
Microsoft’s message for Internet Explorer 9, is the web can be fast, and beautiful, with the official launch site being titled “beauty of the web”. Microsoft has also partnered with major online channels to deliver this message, such as Facebook and Yahoo!
A new feature to Internet Explorer, named “pinned websites” is similar to a bookmark that can be added to your Windows’ start bar, allowing quick, immediate access to the websites you frequently acces, without the need to first launch your browser and type in the web address. This feature is sure to be a hit amongst Facebook addicts.
It is said the release of “IE9” was brought forward in light of recent heavy advertising campaigns from Google Chrome, which has been boasting faster load times, and improved security.
Microsoft has lost market share in recent years to competitive browsers such as the ever popular Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari and of late, Google Chrome.
As users of IE9 for almost a year now, we can report that Internet Explorer 9 is a fairly reliable web browser, which seems to load quicker than Firefox, but doesn’t go a great way to enhance or improve the browsing experience. Simple tasks are fine, but power users would prefer Chrome or Firefox.
A time may come where it is the preferred browser of converts to alternatives due to “IE9 optimised sites” working better, but with a big push for standards compliance, that path doesn’t seem likely.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is available as a free download for computers running Windows Vista and Windows 7 from http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/
iPad2 Release Date
The much anticipated successor to Apple’s popular iPad tablet, the iPad2 is due to launch in North America today, with Apple fans expected in their troves to line up around the block and camp outside of stores across the USA to get their hands on the latest piece of shiny goodness from Steve Job’s empire.
The new iPad, which launches in Australia on 25th March 2011, has a new A5 dual core processor, meaning it can load applications much faster, and handle more applications, and is reported to have nine times the graphics processing power of its predecessor, great for games and movies.
The iPad2 is thinner and lighter the original, and still matches the battery performance of the older iPad , which is great for power users wanting to spend all day with their iPad.
In addition to a cosmetic upgrade and performance enhancements under the hood, the iPad 2 has a new “Smart Cover” which clips onto the iPad magnetically, flips open like a book cover, acts as a protective screen cover and power saver when the cover is closed, and also doubles as a stand.
It also has a front-facing camera for “facetime” a video conferencing feature which was sorely missed in the first generation, and led to much criticism of the first iPad launch.
The release date for iPad2 in Australia is 25th March 2011, and is expected to go on sale with a starting price of approximately $650 for the base 3G model with 16GB of storage, with a $100 premium for Wifi+3G, and storage options up to 64GB.
The optional magnetic Smart Cover is expected to retail from $70-140 depending on whether the polyurethane or leather option is selected, however these figures are speculative, as Apple is yet to launch an official Australian price list.
See the Apple website for more details.
7 days until IPv4 Exhaustion
As we settle into the new year, Internet providers and IT managers are facing an eventuality that nobody ever really wanted to deal with, IPv4 Exhaustion.
An IP address, or Internet Protocol address is a unique number which internet users are assigned when they connect to the internet.
The internet is almost 40 years old now, having initially been developed by the US Military with only a finite number of addresses (approximately 4 Billion) available for use.
In the early years when only a handfull of large technology companies were connected to the internet, 4 billion addresses seemed like a lot, however the rapid up take of Internet services, and the need for additional IP Addresses per user (mostly related to increased use of smart phones, tablets and other mobile computing devices) has meant this very finite resource is on the brink of drying up, and it expected that every IPv4 Address range in the globe will be allocated (or completely exausted) by February 2nd 2011.
To date, IT managers in large corporations have been able to successfully manage their small number of IP Addresses using the public IP Addresses for their external / public facing firewalls, and Network address translation and private address spaces meant they could manage their Internal networks and VPNs without too much difficulty,
Doom and Gloom
There is no need to fear the very end just yet, much of the hype around exaustion relates to network operators making a grab for any remaining address ranges, but once they are allocated, they will need to be very smart in how they scale their network and add users to the IPv4 space.
It is thought that India and China will have the most difficulty managing the depletion of IP addresses due to the sheer volume of new users coming into the new digital era.
The future is bright
IPv6 (literally meaning Internet Protocol version 6) is the successor to IPv4, and this has an almost limitless number of internet addresses (340 billion billion billion billion) , thought to be able to provide multiple IP Addresses for every human on the planet for many years to come (and then some), and this is the ultimate solution to the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.
The main challenge for providers and vendors is:
- Implementing IPv6 technology and educating engineering and support personell
- Promoting and educating end users to make the shift
For now, you can rest assured that ONE has sufficient IPv4 address space, which we believe will allow us to scale for the foreseeable future. Our engineers have also been developing an IPv6 implementation strategy for some time, to ensure we are able to continue our growth and accommodate our customers moving into the new digital economy.
For more information about the exhaustion of IPv4 (as well as a counter), see the following: http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/
For info on IPv6, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6